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South Korea Struggles to Punish North Korea NewsMax.com Wires SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea's spy chief offered to resign Friday, as the country struggled to find the best way to punish North Korea for its nuclear test without overly aggravating the reclusive state.
Kim Seung-kyu, head of the National Intelligence Service, was the third minister-level official to offer to quit since North Korea's first-ever nuclear weapons test this month.
On Tuesday, Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok, in charge of reconciliation with the North, also offered his resignation, saying he wanted to take responsibility for the Oct. 9 test.
The country's defense minister also offered to quit on Monday.
Local media have widely reported that President Roh Moo-hyun planned to accept all the resignations and reshuffle his Cabinet early next month. Roh hasn't publicly announced his plans.
Roh will need to find a new foreign minister when Ban Ki-moon steps down to become the next secretary-general of the United Nations.
The speculation about a major reshuffle came as Seoul struggled to strike a balance between its obligations under a U.N. Security Council resolution passed after the North's nuclear test and concerns that aggravating the reclusive state could destabilize the region.
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Seoul has vowed to support the U.N. sanctions resolution, but also said it wants to do so in a way that does not disrupt stability.
As a main aid provider and trade partner for the North, South Korea's participation is considered crucial for the success of the resolution, which bans the sale of major arms to the North and calls for inspection of cargo entering and leaving the country.
It also calls for the freezing of assets of businesses supplying North Korea's nuclear and ballistic weapons programs, as well as restrictions on sales of luxury goods and travel bans on North Korean officials.
"We can't do nothing about inter-Korean economic cooperation," chief presidential security adviser Song Min-soon told Parliament Friday, indicating that South Korea will take some measures to restrict trade with the North in line with the U.N. sanctions. He did not elaborate on what measures might be taken.
Song said Seoul was considering how much it would participate in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative — which calls for North Korean ships suspected of carrying banned cargo to be stopped and inspected. But he said South Korea would not go so far as setting up a naval blockade.
Seoul has been reluctant to fully join the initiative because of concerns it could lead to clashes with North Korea. Navies of the rival Koreas had deadly naval battles in 1999 and 2002.
"We have not (fully) participated in the PSI because there is a high possibility of armed clashes if the PSI is carried out in waters around the Korean peninsula," Vice Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan told Parliament Friday.
Meanwhile, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, Alexander Vershbow, stepped up pressure on Seoul to expand its role in the interdiction program to show the North that its "behavior is unacceptable."
"We have asked the (South Korean) government to join the international community in preventing proliferation of weapons from (North Korea), and I understand the government is considering the question of closer involvement in our proliferation security initiative," Vershbow said Friday.
"I expect that the (South Korean) government . . . will take appropriate steps," he said.
North Korea has warned the South against joining international sanctions, saying it would drive inter-Korean relations to a "catastrophe."
North Korea also accused the South on Friday of stepping up preparations to invade it jointly with the U.S.
"The army and the people of (North Korea) are fully ready to retaliate against any provocation or nuclear war moves," the North's Korean National Peace Committee said in a statement carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency. "The U.S. and the South Korean warlike forces would be well advised to stop running amok and cancel at once such extremely provocative and reckless war scenarios."
Also on Friday, the South Korean military conducted a massive exercise off the country's southern coast involving some 8,000 troops.
"This was not in reaction to North Korea. It's regular training," said Marine Capt. Han No-soo. "But yes, North Korea is in the back of our minds. Some of us may be thinking of this as a North Korean beach."
© 2006 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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